Another in a long line of blogs devoted to baseball cards, specifically from the Topps Company, and the Hobby in general. Reviews on new and older sets, along with unbiased opinions, will be included.

If you stumbled upon this blog and didn't find what you were looking for, please feel free to e-mail me at bdj610@hotmail.com. I'd be happy to answer your questions.

Monday, May 13, 2013

The Final and Official Post about the 2013 Topps 17-Card Team Sets.

Back in January, I posted the preliminary checklists for all 32 of the 17-card team sets that Topps was going to come out with after the 2013 season would commence. Needless to say, lots of roster changes happened after the 11th of January, and in the middle of April, the new team sets were popping up in stores and Internet sites everywhere. The source I use for pictures (really good pictures) had 29 of the 30 teams' sets up on their site (once again, the Padres were the lone hold out, which was the reason why my 2011 post ran so late).

But since then, two developments occurred that is allowing me to write this post. The first was that the site has finally added the Padres team set to their site (I'll get to the second development after this long post...it will be long...trust me).

For those who don't know why I obsess over these sets (like the Random Team Set of the Week posts weren't enough), here is a "brief" background of my history with the sets:

Since 2006, as a way to bring kids back to the Hobby, Topps began issuing Team Sets for each of the 30 MLB teams. And they could be found EVERYWHERE!!! From big box stores like Target and WalMart, to your local Supermarket, these blister packed sets contained at least 14 cards of your local team's heroes. No leafing through pack after pack to get cards of the team you root for, it's all here in easy-to-carry-to-the-register-package.

While many cards had pictures similar to those found in the 2006 base set, there were a number of cards of players who were pictured in different uniforms, had different pictures than what was used in the base set (photoshop was used in more than one instance), or players who were left of the base set included, meaning that they were only found in these retail only sets. These must have sold very well because in 2007 and 2008, these 14-card packages returned to store shelves. In 2009, a bonus 15th card was added to each of the sets. These bonus cards could have been of the stadium, the manager, the team mascot, a bonus player, or even a President or two. In 2010, two more cards were added to the blister packs, so each set contained an astounding 17 cards. In 2011, Topps introduced AL and NL All-Star Team Sets ;along with the 30 team sets. Of course I had to get those as well.

For the record, I have been insane enough to buy not just one set, or even two. I have bought ALL 30 TEAM SETS for the last SEVEN YEARS (plus the two All-Star Sets from 2011 AND 2012).That's 214 team sets, roughly 3308 cards total, that I have added to my collection. What can I say, I wanted to collect them all...

Without further ado, here are the final checklists for all 32 team sets (including the All-Star sets):

It turns out that it is the Athletics and Cardinals (not the Phillies) that will not include a card of the stadium (opting to include Coco Crisp and Matt Carpenter respectively as their card #17.

Pablo Sandoval and Craig Kimbrel replace David Freese and Matt Holliday on the NL All-Stars team set. This also means that the NL has the lone relief pitcher on either set. Somehow the Cardinals get the shaft on this deal.

Neither Ryu Hyun-Jin (Dodgers) and Zack Wheeler (Mets), players who had not made his major league debut at the time but were initially included in these checklists, do NOT appear to have a card in their respective team's retail sets.

Finally, I mentioned at the beginning that there were two developments that occurred that made this post possible. The first was having all the images ready. The second?

I now have all 32 of the 2013 Topps Team sets. They arrived over the weekend, and after ensuring that all were included in the package, I have something to tide me over until Series 2 arrives in June. Time to add another 544 cards to the ever growing collection.

Dad, I'm Praying For You!!!

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The Topps 300 (and then some...)

Inspired by Topps attempt to whittle down the Top 60 cards of All-Time, I thought that the Hobby Blogging Community can do better. And now that they have been announcing, card by card, the results of their voting, now is the time to ensure that your favorite cards from every year is on the ballot.

The best five cards from each year (my opinion, from 1951-2010) is included in each post (see the slideshow on the sidebar). I am inviting readers to add comments to each post telling me what cards should have been included. What will happen eventually is that every card will be put to a vote to determine the best card from every year, and then the best cards of All-Time.

So please take the time to visit the site and let me know what you think.

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For the record (like this even needs to be pointed out...), bdj610 does not work for, and is not affiliated in any way with, the Topps Company Incorporated, or any of their corporate partners, associates, or vendors. All views and opinions expressed on this blog are strictly those of the writer alone and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of any employee of the Topps Company, the Tornante Group, or Madison Dearborn Partners.

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